Trump says Pence and other ex-Cabinet members would be 'very disloyal' if they ran against him in a 2024 GOP presidential primary
- Trump said it would be "very disloyal" if Pence and ex-Cabinet members ran against him in 2024.
- As the ex-president mulls over a White House bid, he sent a clear message to potential challengers.
Former President Donald Trump on Friday said it would be "very disloyal" for his former Cabinet members to run against him in a 2024 Republican presidential primary, sending a firm message to those mulling over potential White House candidacies.
During a Fox News Radio interview with host Brian Kilmeade, Trump boasted of his continued dominance among GOP voters by pointing to the strong primary leads that he continues to hold in most public polling.
Trump has not yet declared a 2024 candidacy but is widely thought to be waiting until after the November midterm elections to announce his intentions. Vice President Mike Pence and other former members of the Trump administration have also been highlighted as potential challengers.
"Many of them have said they would never run if I run, so we'll see whether that turns out to be true," Trump said of Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and former United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. "I think it would be very disloyal if they did, but that's OK, too."
He continued: "The polls have me leading by 40, 50 points. I'm leading by a lot. The other thing is I'll probably decide in the not-too-distant future."
Trump then proceeded to point to inflation and border issues under President Joe Biden and called the United States "a nation in decline."
The former president has flirted with a 2024 campaign since he left the White House last year, and has barnstormed the country headlining "Save America" rallies and boosting GOP candidates running in the 2022 midterms.
While Trump is currently a favorite to win the 2024 nomination if he chooses to compete, other Republicans are looking to steer the party in a Trump-centric direction but without the polarizing leader at its helm.
Pence, Pompeo, and Haley are believed to be pondering 2024 campaigns. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who were not a part of the former president's Cabinet, are also seen as serious contenders.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who has been a vocal critic of Trump, is also thought to be a potential 2024 opponent. He will leave office in January 2023 after two terms in office.
While stumping for other Republicans, Pence has praised the conservative agenda that he pursued with Trump but has sought to craft his own identity apart from his former boss.
Trump has repeatedly spoken of his disappointment that Pence did not stop the certification process of Biden's 2020 presidential victory; the former president has continued to make claims that the election was "stolen" despite no evidence of mass fraud and multiple unsuccessful attempts to litigate the results in court before he left office in January 2021.